


13 Stations

by clexylexy (ClexaDork)



Category: The 100 (TV)
Genre: Clexa, F/F, The 100 - Freeform
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-03-03
Updated: 2016-03-12
Packaged: 2018-05-24 10:55:46
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 3
Words: 5,851
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6151321
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ClexaDork/pseuds/clexylexy
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Based off the idea that the Grounders were on the 13th station when the Ark was formed, but it crashed. Instead, the ship doesn’t crash, and Clarke and Lexa meet on the ship after Lexa gets arrested. There was no room in any other cells, so she is brought to Clarke’s until the Drop Ship is sent down.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. On the Ark

Lexa sat in one of the common rooms on the Ark, watching the people from behind the only book she owned; a copy of A Tale of Two Cities. Her girlfriend, Costia, had given it to her shortly before she was floated for stealing medicine. It was the most important thing she owned. It had been Costia’s favorite book too, in fact, it had been what had originally drawn them together.

She was in the middle of reading a line by her favorite character, when a hand was smacked down on the table before her. It startled her out of her thoughts, and she nearly dropped the book, but she wasn’t so fragile that she couldn’t handle a little scare.

“Alexandria,” the voice of none other than John Murphy said from above her. “How’ve you been?”

She looked up, stoic expression still standing despite the raging fire burning in her chest. Murphy was the one that had turned Costia in. Lexa guessed he figured that since his father had been floated for stealing medicine, anyone else that tried to get away with it had to be caught as well. _It was only fair_. An eye for an eye, seemed to be his policy.

“You mean since you turned in the love of my life and got her killed?” Lexa tilted her head, leaning back in her seat. “ _Peachy_.”

“I didn’t get your girlfriend killed.” He sat down across from her, “That was Jaha’s fault.”

“ _You_ turned her in, _you_ killed her.”

His lips only twitched for a second or two, but Lexa saw it happen. It made her furious that her pain was giving him pleasure. She wanted nothing more than to pull the lever that would send him off into space.

“Yeah well, from what I’ve heard, she stole those medicines for you.”

Lexa lost it. The next thing she knew she was launching herself across the table at Murphy and all hell broke loose around them.

\---

She didn’t care. She didn’t give a rat’s ass that she was being taken to the Sky Box, or that she would stay there for the next month until she turned eighteen. She didn’t even care if after she got reevaluated, if the Council decided to float her for her crime. In Lexa’s eyes, she had nobody and nothing to live for. She was alone.

On the bright side, Murphy would be put into lock up as well. He had been accused of “antagonizing” and “fighting back”. Which he did, if the cut on Lexa’s lip had anything to say about it.

As Lexa was marched to whatever cell she would call home for the next month, handcuffs clattering around her wrists, she hoped her roommate wasn’t annoying. After all Lexa had been through, she deserved a roommate that wouldn’t be up her ass all the time.

The guards stopped her, grabbing her arm when she tried to keep going down the hall. The guard to her right stepped forward and typed in a key on the door pad, opening it and allowing Lexa to step through the threshold. She held her hands out to them so they could remove her cuffs. She turned back around to face her new roommate, but was surprised when she was greeted by a room covered in art. Charcoal drawings had been made everywhere along the walls, some reaching almost as high as the ceiling.

But what surprised her the most was the blonde girl standing a few feet away, drawing on the wall. Lexa couldn’t help but stare; the girl had an _excellent_ form, and a nice ass, from what Lexa could tell.

The guards introducing her drew her out of her faze, and Lexa watched as the pretty blonde girl turned around. Lexa’s breath caught in her throat when she saw how strikingly beautiful this girl truly was; golden blonde hair cascading down her shoulders, bright blue eyes, and a stunning chest region. _God, I’m gay_.

“Clarke Griffin,” the guard announced. “This is your new cellmate, Lexa Woods. Meals will be served in a few hours.”

Lexa blinked when the door slammed shut behind her, eyes still on the beautiful girl. She hadn’t looked Lexa over, just simply acknowledged the fact that someone had entered. Maybe they had given her warning, or maybe she just didn’t care, but either way, Lexa was a little disappointed she hadn’t gotten a once over or a _damn that girl’s hot_ look.

Lexa let herself further into the room, taking a seat on the clean cot in the room. The other had obviously been Clarke’s, for the sheets were still messy from the night before. It wasn’t until a few awkward moments of silence filled with nothing but the quiet scraping of Clarke’s charcoal on the wall that Lexa finally recognized her.

“ _Griffin_ ,” Lexa muttered, “You’re the one who got locked up to keep a secret, right?”

“You’re the one that…” she paused, “Wait, why are you here?”

“I got in a fight with John Murphy.” Lexa shrugged. “In my opinion, he deserved it.”

“That wasn’t very smart.” Clarke shook her head, letting out a quiet laugh. She continued moving her hand delicately over the art, using her finger to blend some of the lines together.

“He was making a joke of my girlfriend.” Lexa crossed her arms, staring angrily at the other side of the room, more specifically Clarke’s mess of a cot. “I don’t like it when those I love are made fools of.” Lexa paused, “Those I _loved_.”

“’Loved’?” Clarke asked.

“She, um, was floated for stealing a year ago.” Lexa looked down at her hands in her lap, fidgeting with them nervously. She heard Clarke mutter a quiet, “I’m sorry,” before the sounds of her charcoal filled the silence again.

Lexa tried to bring the mood up in the room; she wasn’t sure why _she_ was the one drawing out conversation. She had originally hoped her roommate would be quiet and ignore her like most people on the Ark did. But Lexa found herself wanting to talk to this girl.

“I love your art.” Lexa looked around the room again, “It makes for a wonderful view.”

Lexa catches Clarke’s small smile from the side, and almost couldn’t hear her when she muttered a, “Thanks.”

She continued to watch the pretty blonde girl draw on the wall, and as she watched, she wondered how it was possible that such a quiet and seemingly shy girl got thrown into the Sky Box for committing _treason_ , of all things. She thought about asking, since Lexa had already spilled most of the huge details about herself without meaning to. It was only fair that Lexa got to know just exactly who she'd be living with for a while. Lexa normally didn’t press people into spilling their secrets, but she wanted to know all about this girl. She wasn’t sure why, but from what she’d seen so far, she _liked_ this girl.

“So I spilled my deep, _dark_ secret.” Lexa pressed. “What’s yours?”

Clarke stopped drawing, her hand remaining in the air above a tree she’d sketched. After yet another moment of silence, Clarke turned to Lexa, her mouth open as if she was about to say something. But she didn’t; not when she saw Lexa. Her face displayed an array of surprise, her eyes roaming over Lexa’s body as she took her in. Lexa blushed, awkwardly clearing her throat. Clarke blinked a few times, snapping out of her faze.

She moved away from the wall and took a seat beside Lexa, placing her hands on her knees and taking a deep breath. She leaned closer to Lexa and lowered her voice, “You can’t tell anyone.”

Lexa nodded, looking into Clarke’s deep sea eyes as she spoke.

“The Ark; it’s dying.” She whispered.

“What do you mean?” Lexa was confused; they’d had problems with the Ark before, but they could always fix them. What was different about this time?

“At the current population level, there’s roughly three months left of oxygen.”

“Couldn’t they just fix it?” Lexa’s brows drew together; so now she knew why they were so strict about laws, always floating people for the simplest of crimes. They needed as much oxygen as they could get.

“My father discovered the flaw. He thought the people had a right to know. The Council disagreed, my mother disagreed… They were afraid it would cause a panic. We were gonna go public anyway, but…”

“The guard showed up?”

“Yes. They floated my father and locked me up to keep their little secret.” She sighed, leaning back against the wall beside Lexa’s bed.

They didn’t speak anymore that night after that; Clarke had stood and went back to the wall, continuing her drawing. When it was time, the guards brought them food, and they went to sleep.

\---

The next morning when Lexa woke up, Clarke was still asleep. Two trays of food sat by their door. Lexa got up and grabbed hers, sitting back down on her bed to eat it. She watched Clarke sleep; her eyes fluttered every now and then, and Lexa wondered what she was dreaming about.

Most nights, Lexa dreamed of Costia. Or the ground. Sometimes both. Last night, however, she hadn’t dreamt of Costia. She’d dreamt of Clarke. Clarke and her had run through the forest, swam in rivers, and eaten _real_ food from _real_ plants like they should’ve gotten to, away from their problems, if only not for the bombs all those years ago.

Clarke’s head moved to the side, her lips moving as she murmured silently in her sleep. Lexa was about to go over to her, when she suddenly sat up, screaming. Lexa rushed over, sitting down on the bed beside her, trying to calm her down. She placed a hand on Clarke’s arm, and another on the side of her face, turning her head towards Lexa and forcing her to look into her eyes.

“It’s okay.” Lexa said, wiping a tear off her cheek. “You’re here with me. It wasn’t real.”

“ _It was real_.” She whispered, leaning back against the wall. Lexa let go of Clarke and moved to lean against the wall beside her.

“Tell me what happened.”

Clarke didn’t know why she had told this much to this stranger; they’d known each other for _maybe_ one day. At the beginning, she hadn’t wanted to speak to this girl at all, and had even requested they take the cot and make her live with another set of people. But, that hadn’t been an option. Now that the girl was here, she found something incredibly comforting in her that she hadn’t been able to find in anyone since her father. So, maybe that was why she told her about her dream.

“It was my father…” Clarke whispered. “He… Jaha…”

Lexa just nodded, leaning her head back against the wall and looking over at Clarke. She grabbed her hand and squeezed, trying to comfort her. Lexa hadn’t been there when Jaha had pulled that lever to kill Costia, so she could only imagine what it would be like to see her slipping away. She’d dreamed about it before, in the first few weeks after Costia had died, but she hadn’t seen it, so she had no clue what it was truly like to see your loved one get sucked into space.

“How long have you been here?” Lexa says, trying to change the topic to help Clarke feel better. It appeared her topic to steer the conversation away from her father hadn’t helped much. Clarke frowned, staring over at her own cot.

Lexa’s tone got more serious, “How long have you been waking up from nightmares alone?”

“A year.”

“They kept you in solitary for a year?” Lexa sat up, “Just to keep a secret?”

“Yes.”

She hated the Council for what they did, for the lies they told to “protect” the Ark. She had an entire list of reasons to hate them, and she figured Clarke did as well.

Lexa thought that someone this beautiful and kind should never have had to go through this alone.

\---

The next morning that Lexa woke up, Clarke was already awake. Lexa almost didn’t see her when she’d stood to grab her meal from the door. Clarke had been on the ground in the middle of the room, charcoal in hand. She drew a beautiful piece with trees and a waterfall; everything anyone on the Ark had ever wanted to see.

Clarke was too focused to notice Lexa get up and grab her breakfast. When Lexa says, “Good morning,” Clarke finally looks up and shoots her a smile. She leaned back on her feet and looked up at Lexa.

Lexa smiled back, using her free hand to motion to the art, “That’s amazing.”

Clarke blushed, looking down at her art. “Thanks.”

“Where’d you learn to do this?” Lexa motioned to the entire room and all its masterpieces.

“I don’t know, I guess I just picked it up over the years. I’ve always wondered what it’d been like to feel the sun on my face, see trees all around me, the scent of wildflowers on a breeze… When I’m drawing, it’s like I can really do all those things. I can pretend…” Clarke remembered Lexa’s original question, “So lots of practice. You should see my family’s unit; it’s covered in art that my parents refused to let me throw away…”

Clarke looked up when she noticed Lexa staring down at her, a smile on her face. Clarke blushed again, “Anyway, I just… yeah.”

“Well-” Lexa started to say, but was cut off by the sound of a _click_. The door opened, two guards entering their small two-person cell. Clarke startled, dropping her charcoal and jumping up from her spot on the floor. Lexa looks over at the guards, worried they might be here to take Clarke away. She didn’t know if they’d bugged the place; they could have heard Clarke tell her about the problems with the Ark.

But instead, the guards spoke out both their prisoner numbers. One of them opened a case filled with wristbands, holding it out to the other guard. “If you could both produce your wrists-”

“No!” Clarke said in a panic, “I have another month before I turn eighteen.”

“Just come here, ma’am.” The guard stepped forward, about to put his hands on Clarke. Lexa doesn’t allow him to get near her, hopping off her bed and kicking him in the stomach. The guard fell back, ramming into the other guard’s chest. Lexa took the opportunity to grab Clarke’s hand and pull her out of the room. She pushed Clarke ahead of her through the door, closing and locking it behind them.

She caught up with Clarke, who was looking over the edge of the walkway. She gripped the bars with both her hands, looking out over the Sky Box alongside Clarke. She saw guards escorting all the other prisoners out of their cells as well. Clarke looked over at her, and Lexa could see her own confusion reflecting back at her through Clarke’s eyes. _What’s going on?_

A voice cut through their confusion, “Clarke!”

Both their heads snapped in the direction of the voice. A woman who looked to be in her late thirties walked over, two guards on either side of her. Clarke visibly relaxed, stepping over and embracing the woman in a hug. “Mom.” Lexa heard her say. “What’s happening?”

Clarke pulled back, but kept her grip on her mother’s arms. Lexa couldn’t hear what they were saying, but it made her long for her own parents. It made her long for Costia. It made her long for something or someone to find that much comfort in.

A sting in her neck made her forget all about her loss. She reached up and felt at her neck, turning in the direction the sting had come from. Lexa notices two guards walking towards them, one with a small gun aimed at her. _No_ , not at _her_ , but at _Clarke_.

Her vision starts to blur, but she still has enough time to warn Clarke to save herself. She turns away from the guards to look at Clarke, who is still embracing her mother. Lexa opens her mouth to speak, but she sees Clarke slump against her mother, the tranquilizer already in her neck. Her mother catches her, lowering her to the ground. Lexa slips, gripping the bars on the side of the walkway to keep herself up. She watches them snap one of the wristbands across Clarke’s wrist.

Just as she’s about to fall to the ground, a guard steps forward and catches her. She struggles a bit in his grip; she didn’t know why, but she wanted to live. She didn’t want them to take her off to wherever they were going to kill her. She didn’t want them to kill Clarke.

Her struggles cease completely as her vision goes dark and she passes out.


	2. On the Drop Ship

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Clarke and Lexa wake up in the Drop Ship, as it's crashing down. When they reach the ground, they immediately get to work.

Lexa opened her eyes, head misty and vision blurry. She was about to lift her head and look around when she felt the ground shake below her, surprised murmurs from whoever was around her filling the air. The _ship_ , Lexa had to correct herself. They were not on the ground.

 _Wait_ … she lifted her head immediately, blinking away the fogginess in her mind. _Why is the ship shaking?_

She looked to her left; there was a kid she had never seen before. She turned to her right; familiar blonde hair shone in the flickering lights. “Clarke?” Lexa muttered, voice a little raspy. The blonde didn’t respond; she must’ve still been passed out.

 _Clarke. Guards. Escape. Tranquilizers._ It was all coming back to her now.

Lexa lifted herself in her seat, adjusting her position to get as comfortable as she could. So they hadn’t been _floating_ them to make more time for the rest of the Arkers? They were sending them to die on the ground instead? _Perfect_ , Lexa thought, _just what I need_.

Lexa braces herself, gripping the sides of the bars holding her into her seat, when the ship starts to shake violently. She closes her eyes tightly and presses her head back against the seat, praying silently that nothing happened to her or Clarke. Oh, and the other people too.

“Lexa?” she hears beside her. Her eyes snap open and she flicks her attention to Clarke, who’s blinking rapidly beside her. “What’s going on?”

“I don’t know.” Lexa offers her a smile. “But it’ll be okay. I won’t let anything happen to you, Clarke.”

Clarke smiled back, but Lexa could tell it was a little forced. She looked concerned for the situation, and for the other people on the ship.

“Prisoners of the Ark.” A voice rings out around them; the Chancellor’s. Lexa looks up and notices a screen, with a pre-recorded video message on it. Sure enough, the Chancellor is on the screen, looking smug as ever. “You’ve been given a second chance.”

As he continued to go on about their new life on the ground, and survival methods, Lexa was just trying to ignore the idiots around her shouting incoherent things at him. He couldn’t hear them; but if he could, Lexa would certainly join them for what he did to Costia.

A boy glides into Lexa’s vision, blocking her view of the screen. He stopped in front of Clarke, appearing to only look at her. Cheers of, “Spacewalker!” fill the ship.

“Aren’t you the one they locked up for treason?” he asks her arrogantly, crossing his arms over his chest as he continues to float before her.

Lexa ignores the tiny pit of jealously in her stomach.

“Yes. And you’re the idiot they locked up for wasting all those months of oxygen.” She narrowed her eyes at him. “You need to get back in your seat; it’s not safe.”

“I’m fine.” He says, shrugging. “And you don’t get to tell me what to do, Princess.”

“My name isn’t ‘Princess.’”

“Well, my name’s Finn. What’s yours, Princess?”

She doesn’t have time to answer before two boys in the seats a few over from Lexa and Clarke start to unbuckle from their seats as well, floating up into the air. “No! Stay in your seats!” Clarke calls out to them, struggling in her own, but staying put regardless.

The ship rattled and shook viciously then, the two boys who had followed Finn out of their seats flying up and smacking the roof. Finn managed to grab hold of a bar on the wall, hanging on for dear life as the ship crashed past the Earth’s atmosphere.

She heard Clarke hiss beside her when a rather rough punch went through the ship, and turned to see Clarke’s head bleeding; she must have hit it on the metallic edging of her seat.

Lexa was about to ask if she was okay when suddenly one final, large wave shakes through the spacecraft. Everything around them stops.

It’s dead silent for the longest time, until one kid speaks up.

“Listen.” Someone whispers.

“No machine hum.” Another kid says. Everyone around them starts rapidly unbuckling from their seats, rushing down the latter into the lower parts of the ship. Beside Lexa, Clarke unbuckles herself and stands up, Lexa close behind her. Lexa grabs her arm and stops her, turning her around. She raises her hand and touches the cut, her fingers coming away red.

“You need a bandage.” Lexa says, inspecting it closer. “I can see if anyone knows how to-”

“I’m fine.” Clarke pushes past her again, heading for the two boys who had freed themselves from their seats a little too quickly. Lexa follows behind her, standing above the two bodies while Clarke crouches, reaching for a pulse. When she finds none, she lets out a string of cuss words and sighs, standing up. Finn is behind them, looking over at the bodies with his mouth open.

“I didn’t-”

“You shouldn’t have left your seat.” Clarke said, her voice tinted with disappointment.

She looked back at Lexa, as if to make sure she was still there, and then continued over to the latter leading down to the lower part of the ship. Lexa went after her, then Finn. Shouts of, “Open the doors!” were being called below them, and Lexa swore she could see Clarke’s eyes widen as she rushed down the latter quicker, pushing through the crowd. Lexa tried to keep up with her, not wanting to miss anything of importance.

Clarke emerges at the head of the crowd, along with Lexa. “No, you can’t open the doors!” she tells the curly haired boy about to pull the lever. “What if the radiation kills us?”

“We’ll die anyway.” He responds, placing his hand on the lever once more. He’s about to pull when someone in the crowd calls, “Bellamy?”

He stops immediately, recognition filling his eyes. “Octavia?” he calls back, his eyes widening. A girl pushes past them, wrapping her arms around him. “Look how big you are.” He mutters into her hair.

“Excuse me, but who are you?” Clarke cut into their reunion. The girl pulled back and looked over at the blonde, anger lacing her tone as she spoke.

“You mind? I haven’t seen my brother in over a year.”

The people around them started murmuring, “Nobody has a brother.” And, “That’s Octavia Blake! The girl they hid under the floor!”

Octavia got a little antsy, muttering something to Bellamy. He looked down at her with a smile and said, “Well let’s give them something else to remember you by.”

“Like what?” She looked up at him, confusion lacing her tone.

“Like being the first person on the ground in a hundred years.” He stepped back, placing his hand on the lever again. Clarke opened her mouth but closed it again, stepping back and looking over at Lexa, worry covering her expression.

He pulled it down, opening the door. A bright flash of light filled the room, causing Lexa to reach up and shield her eyes with her hand, squinting and trying to focus in on anything.

The first thing that Lexa sensed was the _smell_. The wonderful, beautiful smell of the wilderness. It was a lot different in comparison to the rusty smell of the Ark.

And the _air_. It felt so cool against her skin, and in her lungs. She took in a deep breath; it felt so much different than breathing on the Ark. It felt so much _better_.

Her vision finally adjusted to the light; the breathtaking sight of the forest surrounding her. A beautiful span of green trees and clear blue skies filled every inch of her view, and it wasn’t until the girl, Octavia, screamed, “We’re back, bitches!” and the kids behind them started running past into the forest that she finally looked over at Clarke, who’s perfect blonde hair cascaded down her shoulders and shone, causing her to look like a lioness. And how her blue eyes were so full of wonder and amazement…

Clarke looked over at her, smiling. Lexa smiled back, following her off the edge of the Drop Ship and stepping down into the dirt, leaves and twigs crunching beneath her feet.

Clarke did a three-sixty, spinning slowly in a circle and taking everything in. Lexa was still watching her when her smile faded and she looked back at the Drop Ship, marching in. Lexa followed her inside, her own smile disappearing.

“What are you doing?” Lexa asked, watching Clarke rummaging through the supplies on the ship. “Take a moment and enjoy the view, Clarke.”

“I can’t.” she said. “We need to find a way to get to Mount Weather; like Jaha said. He said there’s supplies there. We need to find where it is-”

She stopped talking suddenly when she pulled what looked to be a map up out of a container. She also grabbed a map stencil and a pencil, collecting it all in her arms and turning around to face Lexa.

“Do you know how to read a map?” Clarke asked. Lexa nodded, reaching forward and helping her carry some of the supplies out of the Drop Ship, “Good. Then you can help me.” They placed them down on the edge of the Drop Ship’s entrance, Clarke picking up the map stencil and searching for their location. Lexa turned her attention momentarily to the other people, watching them run around carelessly and recklessly when there was still so much to do.

“These people won’t last a week if this is how they’re going to act…” Lexa muttered to herself.

Clarke overheard her murmurs, looking up at Lexa with a small smile. “That’s why we need to step up and take care of them.”


	3. On the Ground

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Clarke and five others head off in search of Mount Weather.

“Come on,” Clarke folded up the map and put it away into her makeshift backpack composed of old seatbelts from the Drop Ship. “We need to convince them to come with us.”

Lexa nodded, following her out into the middle of all the craziness. People were running around, some were just talking, and there was even someone attempting to climb a tree. _Wait till he finds out about gravity on the way down_ , Lexa smiled to herself.

Clarke stopped in front of Bellamy, “We need to get to Mount Weather.”

“Why?” Bellamy asked with a smirk, raising his voice and drawing in the attention of all the other delinquents. “Because Jaha told us to?”

Clarke looked around, everyone’s attention having been driven towards her. She shook her head and looked up at him defiantly. Lexa swore this girl got more attractive by the minute. “No. Not because _Jaha told us to_. Because we need to. How long do you think we’ll last without those supplies?” She turns to face everyone, “We _won’t_ survive here without them.”

“Well then you go get them.” Bellamy shrugged, “Let the privileged do the hard work for once.” There was a chorus of, “yeah’s,” in the audience around them.

Clarke just stared at Bellamy; she looked a little speechless. She hadn’t expected everyone to agree with this asshole, like they had. She’d expected them to _at least_ want to survive.

Lexa stepped up, speaking loud enough for everyone to hear. “And just how do you expect us to be able to carry enough food for a hundred people? Or, maybe we won’t even come back for you. Maybe we’ll stay there and keep all of it to ourselves. You won’t know unless you come with us.”

“Doubtful.” Bellamy said. “She cares too much to let us all die; assholes or not.”

Lexa clenched her jaw, looking over at Clarke, who was glaring over at Bellamy, probably because he was right. “So you admit you’d die if we left for Mount Weather and never came back?” Lexa spit back.

“Look,” Bellamy ignored her, turned around, put his hand on two kid’s shoulders and moved them towards Clarke and Lexa. “Now there’s four of you.”

“Five.” The dark-haired boy, Finn, stepped forward as well. “I’ll come too.”

“Sounds like a party.” Bellamy’s sister, Octavia, clapped her hands together and stepped into the little circle. “Make it six.”

“Octavia-”

“You can’t boss me around down here, big brother. I’m going.”

“Fine.” Bellamy stepped back. “Go get those supplies, princess.”

Clarke turned on her heels, the rest of them following her. Everyone else in the “camp” went back to business as usual, running around and talking.

Lexa came up beside Clarke, who was leading at the head of the group. The other four were talking quietly behind them, messing around a little in the forest while still keeping pace. For a while, they walked beside each other in silence; normally, Lexa would’ve thought this to be awkward, but it was a _comfortable_ silence.

Eventually, Lexa started getting a little distracted by the nature around them. There were a few times when she had to jog for a second to catch back up to Clarke. After catching back up for the third time, she turned to Clarke and asked, “How do you just shut out all of this?”

Clarke glanced over at her, “It’s simple. I wonder; why haven’t we seen any animals? Maybe we’ve already been exposed to enough radiation to kill us.”

“Oh, we’re fine.” Lexa shrugs. “We’ve been living in space so long that our systems have adapted to naturally filtering out radiation.”

Clarke’s eye widened in realization, and she nods. “You’re right.”

Octavia ran past them, spinning around one of the trees. She ran farther ahead, causing the rest of them to jog up. When they reached her, she was pulling her pants down, revealing her underwear. “Man, I love Earth.” One of the boys, Jasper, said.

“Octavia, what are you doing?” Clarke called. Lexa looked over and saw Clarke staring oddly at her, and a twinge of jealousy ran through her.

Octavia just smirked, turning towards the edge of the cliff behind her. When she jumped down, they all rushed forward. They saw Octavia below, her head sticking out of the water. “We can’t swim.” Jasper calls out to her.

“No, but we can stand.” She lifted herself, rising high above the surface.

“I… I don’t understand.” Clarke looked down at the map. “There’s not supposed to be a river here.”

“Well, there is.” Finn grinned over at her, “So take off your damn clothes.”

Clarke looks over to Lexa, who simply smiles and shrugs off her jacket. Clarke’s about to start undressing, when Jasper suddenly says, “Octavia, get out of the water!”

Clarke’s smile fades and she rushes over, looking through the water. “There’s something out there. Octavia!”

Lexa joins them, seeing the giant snake swimming over to her. “Get out!” Jasper calls. Octavia screams when it grabs her, but they are cut off when she gets pulled under.

“We have to help her-” Jasper moves to get in the water.

“No! Wait,” Clarke looked around, stepping over to a rock. “Maybe if we distract it, it’ll let her go.”

They move over to help her push the rock in. It sinks in the water, hitting the other rocks below it. They all watch as the snake releases Octavia and moves over to where the rock was. Octavia’s head surfaces, and Jasper immediately jumps in, latching onto her side. He pulls her to the shore, making it just in time before the snake passes by again.

Clarke runs over, looking down at her leg. She reaches over and grabs Jasper’s shirt, tearing a piece of it off. She dabs at the wound, attempting to clean it, tying the string of shirt around it as a makeshift bandage.

Jasper’s friend, Monty, puts his hand on Jasper’s shoulder and smiles. “Note to self; next time, save the girl.”

They all laugh, but Lexa wasn’t sure if it was because of Monty’s joke, or if they were just relieved the fleeting moments of fear were over.

\---

Later that night, Clarke awoke beside her new friends, sitting up and looking around. Her eyes widen when she sees that the forest is _glowing_ ; well, not exactly the forest, but the mushrooms on the trees.

She stood quietly, walking away from everyone and looking around in amazement. She stops before a tree trunk, staring down at the little glowing mushrooms.

She hears footsteps behind her, but keeps her gaze down on the trunk. Lexa stops beside her, muttering, “It’s beautiful, isn’t it?”

Clarke nods, smiling over at her. Little did Clarke know, Lexa wasn’t talking about the forest.

\---

The next morning, they had been following the trail when they’d reached another river, one not as shallow as the previous, so they couldn’t walk across. And besides, what if there were more evil snakes looking to take a bite out of one of them?

So, Finn had suggested swinging across, and was about to go first, when Jasper asked if he could instead. They all watched in anticipation as he swung across, crashing onto the ground. He ducked and rolled, picking himself up and waving over at them, smiling.

They all cheered, shouting, “Go Jasper!”

He looks behind him momentarily, and reaches down, dusting something off. He holds it up victoriously, calling over to them, “We made it! Mount Weather!”

“Clarke.” Finn says, dangling the vine towards her. “Why don’t you go next?”

She accepts the vine from him, looking down at Lexa with a smile. Lexa returned her smile, motioning for Clarke to head off. She pulls herself up onto the vine and pushes off, joining Jasper on the other side.

Pretty soon, they’ve all made it over, even Octavia; she’d taken a little extra time getting across, but she’d insisted she was fine and that they didn’t need to take her back.

Clarke looked at her map for a minute, trying to find out which way they had to go. She pointed off in a direction, saying it lead to the doors of the base. They began their trek off, up into the new, unexplored territory, not knowing that they weren’t alone on the mountain.


End file.
